Customer Reviews

Singular Intimacies: Becoming a Doctor at Bellevue

5 star:		(47)
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Danielle Ofri is the type of doctor you would be lucky to find, should you need one. This book is an extremeley intelligent and sensitive document of the interaction between doctor and patient, health and sickness, and the nature and limits of healing. It's also a hands-on, first person account of what it's like to work in one of the biggest and busiest hospitals in the country. Her essay, "Merced," on a patient who continuted to suffer from a mysterious and unknowable ailment, is a wrenching tale of a doctor who can't help her patient, despite incredible efforts and every modern mechanism. The fate of that patient is gripping and chilling, and she stays with me some three months after reading the book. Finally, for a doctor -- for anyone, in fact -- Danielle Ofri writes like a dream.

This is not a book to take lightly. This is a book about real people, with real problems. This is a book written by a doctor who takes nothing about what she does lightly.
Dr. Ofri takes the sacred--a person and his/her life--and offers us a glimpse into the patient's world and the doctor's world in a poetic, gorgeous book that offers us both rare insight about ourselves and insight about human beings in general.
Each essay describes a moment in time, a look at Dr. Ofri's residency at Bellevue Hospital, a glimpse of one or more of her patients, and a glance toward the human condition and how it can be both transformational and devasting.
Dr. Ofri takes the mundane--an alcoholic arriving in the ER from too much imbibing--and transforms the story into one that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
I am not a doctor, I am not a scientist. I am an ordinary person who will never again look ordinarily at any person whether I see them in a hospital bed or posted as a missing person on a flyer.
Perhaps what sets Dr. Ofri apart is that she is a doctor, a wife, a mother. But I hope not. I hope that every doctor could aspire to having access to both sides of his/her brain, to show emotion and to offer solace in a way that Dr. Ofri has.
This is a must read for anyone in the medical field and a must read for anyone who aspires to have a deeper connection in any relationship with any person.

I am currently an intern in my first year of training at Bellevue. This book was given to me as a present upon my recent graduation from medical school. Although internship does not provide much time for pleasure reading, I am very glad I stayed up at night to read this book. Dr. Ofri is wise and caring. Her willingness to share her insecurities and imperfections is rare in the world of medicine where admissions of weakness are rare. Unlike a number of other senior and jaded doctors I have met, Dr. Ofri has not lost the caring and excitement for medicine everyone has when they begin medical school. Anyone involved in the medical profession will immediately relate to these aspects of the book.

For readers not involved in medicine, the book will still be wonderful to read. It is beautifully written, and all readers will be able to relate to the human drama Dr. Ofri presents. Although I have yet to meet Dr. Ofri in person, I hope that when I am done with my training at Bellevue, I will have a fraction of her passion and compassion.

Singular Intimacies

If you have ever wondered what medical training is like, if you have ever fantasized about becoming a doctor, or if you just love strong writing and great stories, this is a book for you.

Singular Intimacies takes us inside the emotional and intellectual heart of a doctor as she makes her journey from medical student to resident physician during her training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. As a physician and poet who learned to practice medicine at similar inner-city hospitals, I can assure any reader that Dr. Ofri's descriptions of the clinical situations she encounters (including the array of patients, diagnostic dilemmas, clinical conversations, and moments of genuine love and exhilaration), all ring true for me: patients recover unexpectedly from what seem to be fatal illnesses; they die without warning and without having an accurate diagnosis; and they laugh, bleed, masturbate, cooperate, and act up in every imaginable (and unimaginable) way. Through all these experiences, Dr. Ofri shares her own personal responses which vary from her sense of pride when she begins to experience a sense of mastery, to moments of intense anxiety and despair. I found myself re-experiencing my own excitement, fear, and sleep-deprivation, only this time with a compassionate guide, one who is strong enough to let herself laugh at gallows humor, and also be vulnerable enough to cry in the arms of a priest as the patient's family watches. And I celebrated when Dr. Ofri finally finished her training , bruised and calloused, but with the compassionate heart and voice of a healer.

Singular Intimacies is a must read for any physician or non-physician with an interest in the human spirit. Danielle Ofri focuses on the physical and emotional connections she made with other interns, residents, and attendings, as well as her patients while learning how to become a doctor at the legendary Bellevue Hospital.

She describes each level of training she went through, and what lessons she learned in caring for the ill at that particular point in her training. We encounter a diverse group of patients who all have something unique to bring to Ofri's learning experience.

The diversity of New York City is also a point of interest. Regardless of race, sex, or class, Ofri shows we are all emotionally vulnerable. She shows it doesn't matter what side of the medical community a person is on. We are all affected by an individual's illness in some way or another. The descriptions Ofri provides of the hospital, and the surrounding neighborhoods really makes the book intriguing.

Ofri's interactions with the patients shows the pride she has in being a physician, and the book shows the pride she has in being a writer.

The beauty and clarity of Danielle Ofri's writing convey the immediacy of her experiences during her clinical training in medicine at Bellevue Hospital in NYC. In the complex, somewhat chaotic environment of a large city teaching hospital not necessarily conducive to reflective compassionate care, she values the innate resilient sensitivity and compassion within herself that complement the technical proficiencies she is developing. Her responsiveness to the interpersonal side of medicine enriches for her her professional role, and the patients under her care are beneficiaries. A rich perspective and wit enhance this wondrous rendering of the interpersonal nature of doctor-patient relationships.

Singular Intimacies, Danielle Ofri's first non-technical book, is a brilliant addition to the memoirs of physicians and other health care workers. In it, Ofri chronicles her transition from medical student to internist at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. She is humble, funny, smart, sophisticated, vulnerable, and blessed with rare insight. In addition, she has the gift for lucid, direct prose. This book will appeal to physicians, other health care workers, the general public; and especially to those young persons considering a career in medicine. For this latter group and for medical students it is a "must read."
Occasionally, when reading a book I feel like Keats did when he first opened Chapman's "Homer." "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken." Singular Intimacies imparted this welcome and always surprising feeling to me. It should enjoy a great success and help to inspire and humanize many future (and some practicing) physicians.

This is an interesting book and it certainly held my attention. But it was not especially enjoyable to read; at the time it came into my hands, a friend who was seriously ill was being treated at a teaching hospital. Those who prefer not to know too much about the white coats and their training (which is certainly being conducted on patients at teaching hospitals) may want to avoid this book.

That said, some of the stories about patients are pretty eye opening, as well. The human personality is remarkably fixed; a dirty old man who has probably made women miserable all his life will persist, even at death's portal. Some of these stories demonstrate the sad human drama caused by bone-deep denial; others show the amazing aspect of the creative, healing interaction between patient and physician.

As a physician in a New York inner city hospital this book held a particular interest for me. Each scenario was described in such beautiful, literary prose that I felt like I was on the wards once again experiencing the same joy and sorrow. This book is a triumph for the medical profession who trains its doctors to follow directions rather than think creatively. Dr. Ofri's book is the first step towards humanizing the medical profession. I would reccommend this book for all human beings!!

Ofri's book was assigned for a class at the medical school I attend. I found the book to be entertaining and an easy read from her style of writing, although a bit nerve-wracking to realize that the experiences she goes through are similar to those I will experience in my own training. I enjoyed the progression of her book from third year medical student, to residency and beyond. For anyone pursuing medicine as a career I would recommend this book as a way to realize that you are not the only one who is nervous about the responsibility that comes with being a physician. While some of her stories seem a bit grandiose or embellished, it is nonetheless a very entertaining and encouraging read.